MMORPG Lexicon

A numerical
translation for "elite" pronounced "leet," 1337 is a
slang developed by hackers in the '80s used over the internet. Many words
from the slang have leaked to popular culture today ("kidz" is
an example; using a z instead of an s is an element of 1337). It is mostly
prevalent in the gaming world online where people can interact textually.

AE

Area
Effect. Used to refer to area-effect spells or abilities. E.g. fireball,
smoke grenade.

AFK

Away
from keyboard

Aggro

As
a verb, it refers to a hostile mob that has noticed a player and is actively
trying to attack that player. As a noun, it refers to the amount of “hostility”
the player has generated on the mob. In typical combat strategy, the fighter
tries to take as much aggro as possible away from weaker players such as
healers and mages.

Alt

Short
for "alternate". It refers to the alternate character a player
has from their main character. This is not a stable category as sometimes
alts can outlevel mains and sometimes mains become moth-balled.

AO

Abbreviation
for Anarchy Online. An online game.

AOE

Same
as AE. Area of Effect.

Attribute

e.g.
Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence, etc.

Bind

In
certain MMOs, characters are teleported back to a safe spot when they
die. This spot is predetermined by the user. The act of determining the
safe spot requires an explicit action by the user. That action is known
as a bind. The spot is typically referred to as a bind spot.

Bio

Short
for biological. Usually used to indicate bathroom break.

BoE

Short
for "bind on equip" - a term popularized by World of Warcraft.
This term refers to items that become soulbound to the player after they
have been equipped. In other words, the item can be traded as long as no
one equips it.

BoP

Short
for "bind on pickup" - a term popularized by World of Warcraft.
This term refers to items that become soulbound to the player after it has
been picked up from a monster. In other words, the item cannot be traded
once a player picks it up. BoP items commonly cause looting conflicts and
disputes during game-play.

BRB

“be
right back”

Bot

Generally illegal and discouraged form of gameplay, where actions of a character can be automated to perform actions repeatedly in order to gain experience and level without actual user intervention. This practice is continually monitored by GMs and will cause suspension of service if one is suspected of botting.

BRT

“be
right there”

BTW

“by
the way”

Buff

Temporary
boost to character attribute or combat ability

Camp(ing)

The
act of waiting in an area to hunt a specific mob or a specific spawn

In
certain MMOs, a corpse appears where the player died. Sometimes all the
player’s items and money are left on the corpse and the player is
teleported back to their bind spot. Corpses typically will decay after a
certain time proportional the character’s level.

Corpse
Run

The
act of retrieving your corpse after you have died. This is typically a dangerous
thing because people tend to die in dangerous places rather than safe places.

Crafting

A general
category of skills that allows players to manufacture objects from raw resources

Crit

"To crit" refers to landing a critical hit either with melee or spells. Effective damage is usually increased from a base of 150% to upwards of 250% with extra talents/skills/buffs.

Crowd
Control

Refers
to a set of spells / abilities that temporarily paralyze or stun other
mobs or players. Crowd control is an important group support ability
when fighting multiple mobs.

DAoC

Abbreviation
for Dark Age of Camelot. An online game.

DD

Direct
Damage. Used to refer to a class of spells and abilities that allow players
to damage enemies from a distance. The firebolt is the archetypal DD.

Debuff

The
opposite of a buff. An offensive spell cast on enemies that weakens an
attribute or combat ability.

Dirt
Nap

Slang
for dead. Most corpses lie on the ground when killed.

DKP

Dragon
kill points. A fairly elaborate score-keeping system used by guilds to
fairly distribute loot based on participation and contribution to the
guild.

DoT

Damage
over time. Refers to a class of spells that deals damage over a period
of time. These spells typically do more damage than DD spells overall.

DPS

Damage
per second. Used when figuring out weapon speed and damage.

Druid

Hybrid
class in D&D style games - part healer, part support, part fighter.

Eating
Grass

Slang
for dead. Most corpses lie on the ground when killed face down.

EQ

Abbreviation
for EverQuest. An online game.

Experience

A quantity
gained when completing tasks/quests, killing mobs, or various other achievements
in games. When enough experience is accrued, characters often “level
up” and become more powerful.

Farm(ing)

The
act of accumulating currency or a specific item by repeatedly killing
a mob or repeatedly performing a series of actions

FTW

Acronym
for "for the win". Refers to the act, ability, event that's responsible
for a victory. For example, "Sheep FTW!!" - sheep being a spell
that temporarily paralyzes an enemy.

Gank

Verb.
To be ganked is a term referring to one player being overwhelmed and killed
by a large group. Can be either by a group of other players doing player-kill
or a group of NPC monsters. Used in a sentence, "I got ganked yesterday in Fel." Typically
has the connotation that the other people had an unfair advantage (in number
or level).

GM

Game
Master. GM's are characters in an MMORPG who are used by employees of the
game's creator company. They monitor the actions of the game world and answer
the questions and complaints of the players. They have absolute control
and power within the game. If the crime (breaking a law of the game, not
the real world) committed is serious enough, they could even expel players
permanently from the game.

Griefer

Title
for a player who enjoys inflicting pain upon other players needlessly. If
you kill newbies in a PvP game when you are level 50, you will gain no experience
or benefit from the victimization beyond the pure joy of knowing you have
given the player “grief.” Though griefers are almost always
PKers, PKers are not necessarily griefers.

Guilds

Semi-permanent
player groups. In typical games, players must use a substantial amount of
capital to start the guild.

GTG

“good
to go” and “got to go” - can be confusing when context
is unclear

Health

A base
attribute of characters

IMHO

“in
my humble opinion”

INC

Abbreviation
for "incoming". When a tank pulls for group, the tank will use this as
warning that a mob is incoming.

IRL

“in
real life”

Instance

An
instantiation of a particular dungeon for a particular group of players.
Instanced dungeons are then parallel worlds such that different groups
of players can explore the same dungeon in separate groups.

J/K

“just
kidding”

Kite

To
lure a mob or player around much like a kite on a string while attacking
it in some capacity. A player draws agro and the mobility of the monster
is reduced. The monster tries to follow the target (thus becoming the
kite on the string with the target hold the string.) In EQ a common kiting
is DoT (Damage over time) with a snare (reduces the monsters speed) then
running in a large circle until the monster is dead. Methods of kiting
vary from game to game.

KoS

Acronym for "Kill on Sight". Usually used to refer to characters who are disliked by a particular guild. E.g., "After corpse-camping several of our guild's members, we put Gorath on the guild's KoS list".

KS

Kill
Stealing.
When another player attacks the same creature as another player and receives
the reward for the kill instead of the person who originated combat. Newer
games have mechanisms for discouraging this behavior.

LD

Link
dead - when a player is disconnected from the game

Leet

Slang
variant of “elite”

LFG

“looking
for group”

LFM

“looking
for more”, i.e., after a group has been formed and more members
are needed.

LFT

“looking
for team”

LMAO

“laughing
my ass off”

LOL

“laughing
out loud”

LoS

Line
of sight. A requirement of most ranged abilities is that the view of
the target not be obstructed by any fixed obstacle, such as a wall.

Programming term applied to user-made macros, or scripts that can automatically send messages, cast spells, and a variety of other functions. Mainly used to automate things that are repeatedly done to expediate gameplay.

Medding

Resting in order to gain back mana in EQ was called Meditating. This is the
commonly used abbreviation, also shortened to Med, as in, "Don't pull yet, I
need to med."

Mez

Short
for mesmerize. A short-hand for a collection of abilities that temporarily
stun or immobilize enemies. Falls into the more general category known as
crowd control.

Min-Maxing

When
players attempt to create their characters as powerful as they can be by
crunching statistics, planning their future routes, and any other methods
in order to make their characters the statistically best character possible.
Optimization.

MMORPG

Massively-Multiplayer
Online Role-Playing Game

Mob

An
AI controlled monster. 'Mob' originally comes from the MUD era, where it was short for 'mobile', to differentiate monsters that would patrol a set of rooms as opposed to monsters which would stay in one place until killed.

Mod

Abbreviation
of modification. Used as both a verb and a noun. As a noun, refers to
add-ons by 3rd party programmers designed to augment the game (e.g.,
the self-cast mod). As a verb, refers to the act of performing this modification
(e.g., he's modding the interface).

MOO

MUD
Object Oriented. Users in MOOs are able to create their own content -
both static and dynamic objects.

MT

“mistell”.
Mistells occur frequently because of typing in the wrong name before sending
a message. Also because of auto-reply features.

MUD

Multi-User
Dungeon, although some prefer Multi-User Domain. These were the original
textual online worlds.

Mule

In
many games, due to long travel times or inventory limits, it is helpful
to create a character explicitly for the purpose of being able to check
auction houses or store extra items. These characters are seldom actually
played and are referred to as mules.

Nerf

To
soften or reduce an ability, item, player, or action. Usually this is
a term applied when a power or ability is reduced because it is perceived
to be too powerful.

Newbie

A new
player

Ninja
(Looting)

Ninja
looting refers to the purposeful and malicious looting of a drop from a
monster that doesn't follow the rules set by the group. In a sense, the
item is stolen. This can take different forms in different games due to
game-specific game looting mechanisms. In World of Warcraft, ninja looting
refers to rolling for a BoP drop that a person should not have rolled on.
Because WoW warns players when they roll for a BoP object, it is assumed
that such behavior cannot be accidental. The player exhibiting such behavior
is typically branded as a ninja looter.

Noob

The
pejorative form of newbie

NP

“no
problem”

NPC

Non-player
character (ie. controlled by AI)

Nuke

Refers to casters, to cast the highest damage spell or spell combo to effectively pull or finish of a npc. Mages usually are the most effective class in highest burst damage.

OMG

“oh
my god”

OMW

“on
my way”

OOC

out-of-character
- used to refer to OOC chat

OOM

“out
of mana”

ownz

Derived
from the original word "own," both words have the same meaning:
to defeat some other entity in battle or other form of competition. The
"pwnz" origin is probably from the fact that the "o"
and "p" keys are adjacent on the standard qwerty keyboard, and
were used interchangeably by mistake in games and stuck around since then.

Pat

Short for patrol, a term used for mobs that have a set wandering path. In a dungeon, people will usually say "Wait for the pat" or "Watch the pat".

PB

Point
blank. Used to refer to a class of spells that originates in a radius around
the caster. Typically, these spells are dangerous to the caster because
they require proximity to the enemy. Specific spells are typically concatenated
with the ability, i.e. pbae mez, pbae stun

PC

Player
Character

PK

Player
Killing

PKer

Player
Killer - a derogatory term - as in a person who primarily plays to kill
other players

Port

Short
for teleport. Used as a noun and a verb.

Power
Level

When
a higher level player tries to help a lower level player level faster. Most
games have mechanisms that prevent power leveling.

Proc

Abbreviation of "programmed random occurence", refers to usually the benefits of added damage or other buffing enhancement that occurs randomly when an item strikes or is used.

PuG

Pick-up
Group - a group assembled on the spot for a quest, a PvP group, or an
instance raid.

Pull

A standard
hunting strategy where a player lures a single or a group of mobs to the
group so that the group can hunt from a safe area instead of hunting in
areas where new mobs may spawn.

PvE

Player
vs. Environment. Environment stands for all monsters (mobs) in the world

PvP

Player
vs. Player combat

pwnz

same
as ownz

QQ

An emoticon that represents eyes weeping/crying. Used as both an emoticon and a verb. As an emoticon, it is usually a sarcastic reply to someone else's complaint or rant. In that setting, it is similar to "go cry me a river" or "oh boo-hoo". As a verb, it stands in for "complaining about" - e.g., "All the shaman are QQing about the nerf". Note that the verb form refers unintuitively to the complaining rather than the crying.

Race

Typically
fantastical creations, such as Elves, Trolls and the like.

Raid

A more
substantial engagement involving a large organized group of players typically
set in a dungeon and involving difficult mobs

Regen

Short for regeneration (of health, mana, or other replenishable attributes)

Respec

At
certain high levels in some games, you are given the chance to “respec”
your character. When you respec, you recreate your character from level
1 until the present level in terms of skills/powers/abilities/etc.

Rez

Short
for resurrection. Refers to abilities that revive players that have just
died. Typically only available to healer classes.

To "roll" on an item means to type "/random 100", where the server's random number generator puts out a number between 1 and 100, the most generally accepted "fair" way to distribute loot and settle disputes.

Root

Can
refer to a class of abilities as well as its effect. A root spell immobilizes
a target. The target is then said to be rooted. Early versions of these
abilities involved references to plants, hence "root".

RvR

Realm
vs. Realm.

Server

Due
to technical reasons, each server can only support a limited amount of players.
Each MMORPG typically has several servers. Players cannot interact with
players on other servers.

Shard

Synonymous
with server

Solo

The
act of playing alone, hunting mobs alone.

Soulbound

An
item-control mechanic where an item cannot be traded. In other words, only
one person can own the object and it cannot be traded. See also BoE and
BoP.

Spawn

Mobs
typically appear (spawn) on a given schedule. This is both a verb and noun.

Spec

Short
for specification. When used in games, it usually refers to the build/specifications
of your character in terms of skills/abilities/magic/powers/etc.

Stun

A typical
form of crowd control ability that immobilizes an enemy

SWG

Abbreviation
for Star Wars Galaxies. An online game.

Tank

As
a noun, refers to character classes that can take a lot of damage. As a
verb, refers to the act of drawing aggro from mobs before other team members
strike with their abilities.

Twink

As
a verb, the act of giving currency or valuable items to a newbie. As a noun,
refers to a character that is twinked. In many games, twinked characters
are visually marked by their level-inappropriate gear.

Twisting

To rapidly change from one type of ability to another where the abilities overlap
momentarily. In DAOC a bard sings a song that gives a buff. By rapidly changing
the song several songs will overlap due to the duration of the songs continuing
for a short period of time.

UO

Abbreviation
for Ultima Online. An online game.

Uber

Slang
form of super

WB

“welcome
back”

Wipe

To "wipe"
means for the entire group whether party or raid to all die. However, party
or raid can only continue if there is a class that can resurrect oneself,
thereby avoiding the time consumed from running back from the the graveyard
and regrouping at the beginning of the instance.

WOOT

Synonymous
with "hooray" or "way to go".

WoW

Abbreviation
for World of Warcraft. An online game.

WTB

“want
to buy”

WTS

“want
to sell”

XP

experience
points

Zerg

A combat
strategy where a large group of players rush in at the target. Seen as a
simple-minded strategy that requires no skill.

Zone

In
games where different areas of the world are parceled out for loading reasons,
different areas are referred to as zones.